You have here the first section of Kehama. It was written between seven & eight years ago in the metre of
Thalaba, [2] & has since been thrown into rhyme, piece-meal, – in consequence of which I
suspect that the language flows less naturally than it would have otherwise have done. I am a patient transcriber, & usually in
transcribing make so many alterations that the time so bestowed is not unprofitably spent, & if you will find out the faults here
half as keenly as you have found out the beauties of Madoc, [3] I will send section after section, as leisure & opportunity
may serve.

Your letter would have been more welcome but for the intelligence with which it concluded. That mind of yours is so
vigorous & that heart so young, – so beyond the reach of time & infirmity, that I would fain persuade myself the system is yet
sound, notwithstanding the attacks which it has sustained. As for presentiments there are many facts which tend to prove that they act
just contrary to the manner in which they are commonly supposed to do, – & that when persons fix the day or hour for their death,
& are punctual to the engagement, they are kept alive to that moment by their faith that they shall not die before it, which
otherwise would have been the case. I feared [MS torn] were ill, because a longer time than usual had elapsed without my hearing from
you.

It would be in vain to argue with you about the Cid, [4] – you are as insensible to the beauties of that stile of history, as I am to
the charms of music, & hundreds have the same want of faculty in both cases. To me that Chronicle [5] seems not only one of the most curious
pieces of history in existence (that it is assuredly is,) but also one of the most delightful; & no
employment ever gave me more pleasure than that of reducing it to the shape in which it now appears. But I am historian as well as
poet, & you do not sympathize with me in the emotions that an old Chronicle excites.

Do not mistake me about peace. It is an abuse of words to talk of peace with Bonaparte. Such peace
as Prussia has we might obtain, but that is submission. Such peace as Mr Addington made [6] we might make again, – the experiment has happily been made, & it proved to
be only a truce, – but that gives him all he wanted, & we get only a breathing time by it, when blessed be God we are not out of
breath. Is there any man in England fool enough to believe that the word or oath of Bonaparte is to be trusted? that he would make
peace with us for a with any other intent than that of creating a navy to destroy us? – It is not my sentiments that have
changed; – precisely the same principles which made me the loud enemy of war in 1793 make me now the loud enemy of peace; for the same
reasons that I abominated then & ever shall abominate Pitt [7]
& his cursed crew, precisely do I in like manner abominate the French Government now. What I love best on earth is
liberty; – it xxx xxxx xxxxx Milton & Hutchinson [8] did not love it more religiously than I do. But if this country bends her knee to France, – & it is only on
her knees that the deadly truce is to be had, – there will be no liberty left on earth. It is mere bigotry to call for peace now,
because the war was unjust ten years ago.

You have well commented upon Hayleys senseless comparison of Cowper with Milton. [9] The success of his feeble piece of biography seems to have turned Hayleys head, as
He has mistaken the liking of the public for admiration; Cowpers letters are easy &
unaffected, sometimes sprightly, sometimes elegant, always natural. You like him the better, – that is the Public like him
the better because they find an intellect quite level with their own, & their own imbecility is never made to feel his strength.
The Yardley Oak [10] & the Task [11] would not be expected from those Letters, – & even there Cowper is not to be named, not to be
thought of with Milton. Am I wrong in suspecting that Cowper, tho he has not more applause than he rightly deserves, is indebted for
one half of his crazy superstition, & for good part of the other because he is more often footing than flying? – Both he &
Churchill [12] were slovens in rhyme for fear of being coxcombs. I
believe it possible to give to rhyme the who strength & manliness of blank verse, but this they never arrived at, &
this must not be in the couplet. Our Miltonic Sonnets have effected it, – & I hope you will find something of this union in some of
the Kehama, where the subject requires a slow movement.

If Carys [13] be not an hereditary
affection it will probably pass away. In general genius is a preservative against madness, – it affords vent, scope & purpose to
those feelings & passionate thoughts, which if pent up, undefined & undirected, overthrow the intellect mind of man.
When the fit is over (I trust it is but a fit) the best advice that can be given him, is to suspend every study or pursuit as soon as
he finds that he dreams about it. This is my receipt for keeping in sound health of nerves; – I have two or three things of nearly
equal interest in hand at once, & pass from one to the other in the same day, quieting all at night with half an hours desultory
reading. Experience taught me the necessity of the system, & my sleep is in consequence as sweet as an infants.

[5] Southey’s edition of the Chronicle of the Cid (1808) was based on translations from the
Crónica particular del Cid (published 1593), with additions from the Crónica de España of
Alphonso the Wise (1541) and Romancero e Historia del Cid (1632). BACK

[6] The Peace of Amiens between Britain and France was made in March 1802 under Henry Addington, 1st
Viscount Sidmouth (1757–1844; DNB), who had been Prime Minister since 1801. The Peace lasted until May 1803;
Addington was forced from office in May 1804. BACK

[7] William Pitt (1759–1806;
DNB), the Prime Minister whose repressive and pro-war policies in the 1790s led Southey to resent him. BACK

[8] John Milton (1608–1674;
DNB), republican polemicist as well as poet; Colonel John Hutchinson (1615–1664; DNB), a Puritan
commander in the English civil war and a signatory of the death warrant of King Charles I, as revealed in a posthumously published
memoir by his widow, Lucy Hutchinson (1620–1681; DNB): Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson
(1806). In the Annual Review for 1806, 5 (1807), 361–378, Southey extolled the conduct and morality of
Hutchinson. BACK

[9] William Hayley (1745–1820; DNB), author of The Poetical Works of John Milton with a Life of the
Author (1794–1797), a Life of Milton (1796) and The Life and Posthumous Writings [chiefly Letters]
of W. Cowper (1803). BACK

[10] An unfinished Miltonic poem published for the first time in Hayley’s
Life and Posthumous Writings. BACK

[12] Charles Churchill (1732–1764; DNB), author of The
Rosciad (1761) and many other long poems in heroic couplets. BACK

[13] Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844; DNB), translator of
Dante, poet. In 1807 Cary’s family was afflicted by typhus, and his younger daughter, Harriet, died of the disease, aged six. Cary
was consequently afflicted with a mental illness which recurred in future years (DNB). BACK